Conventional power tools, including pneumatic nail guns are designed with a trigger mechanism for actuating the operation of these tools.
Various implementations to prevent accidental triggering of such tools are known in the art. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,908,021, 4,264,028 and 4,629,106, the entire disclosure of each of these patents is incorporated herein by reference, are in the related field, and disclose safety devices for trigger means in nail guns and fastener driving tools. These safety devices are constituted by locking mechanism which performs the function of preventing accidental triggering. On the other hand, U.S. Pat. No. 5,180,091, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a triggering mechanism 23 for actuation of trigger valve 9 which does not in itself perform the function, nor has the necessary structure, to prevent accidental triggering.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,679, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a safety feature for an electrical trigger switch which controls current through a pair of main leads. While this patent is not directly related to the field of framing guns, the structure of the trigger guard 26 disclosed therein, as shown for example in FIGS. 3 and 6 of the U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,679, when in closed (“guard”) position resists physical pressure to move the trigger to an active position (see col. 1, lines 56-63; and col. 3, line 56-63) thereby facilitating prevention of accidental triggering.
Further, while not directly related to power tools, various trigger guard devices for fire arms are known, but do not necessarily lend themselves to obvious implementations in power tools.
Accordingly, there is a need for safety devices and methods for facilitating prevention of accidental triggering of power tools, that can be easily implemented in existing power tools and can provide convenience features specific to the power tool users.